ACTS 7:6

We are continuing to look at the sermon that the martyr Stephen gave when he was arrested and brought before the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem. Stephen was speaking of Abraham and Stephen said in Acts 7:6-7, “And God spake on this wise, that his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years. And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.”

God made a great promise to Abraham, but one thing was clear from the beginning: God was not going to totally fulfill that promise right away. The promise was going to be fulfilled because unlike human beings God keeps His Word and God always keeps His promises. The wheels of God may move slowly, but they always move ever so finely. Do you believe God’s promises? Do you believe that God had your interest and well-being in mind? If so, then be prepared to prove your faith by waiting upon the Lord. Don’t be in such a hurry. Make sure you are willing to wait for God’s time.

God said that the descendants of Abraham would be in “a strange land” for four hundred years. Of course, he was talking about Egypt. There is an important spiritual symbolism here to be aware of. The strange land is symbolic of the world. Speaking of Abraham, Hebrews 11:10 says, “For he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” God has promised us the Kingdom of Christ as our abode. It will be a wonderful kingdom: a place of eternal bliss without disease or suffering or death or sin. But we are not there yet. Before we get there we must live in this foreign land: this world that is not our own. We must be patient. There will be suffering at the hands of those who think they are in control; and there may be some time to be spent in the wilderness, but mark it down, the day will come when we will be taken across the river into the land of milk and honey.

It will happen for one reason: God has promised that it will happen. Jesus said in John 14:2-3, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” On the same subject the Bible says in Revelation 21:4, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

Once it was time for the people of God to be delivered from the land of bondage, it was also time to judge those who had held them in bondage. We just read that God said, “The nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge.” The day of salvation will be past one day, and those who rejected God and His Christ, and those who hated the believers will find themselves the objects of the full force of the righteous judgment of the holy God. Concerning the judgment that will surely come Revelation 19:11-15 says, “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness does he judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”

Stephen said in Acts 7:8-10, “And he gave them the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs. And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him, And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharoah king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.” In spite of the fact that we are in a strange land and this world is not our home, God has still promised to be with each of His children and to take care of us on our journey to the promised land. Joseph was sold into slavery into Egypt, but the Bible says here that God was with him and delivered him out of all his afflictions.

That’s one of the great benefits of being a believer in the Lord: the promise of God’s presence and God’s deliverance no matter what comes our way. King David knew about this promise. He wrote in Psalm 23:11, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” He also said in Psalm 23:4-6, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

The enemies of Joseph thought they were throwing him out and casting him into prison. But God turned the tables because God was with Joseph. Yes, Joseph was cast into prison, but he did not stay there. God lifted him up, and not only took him out of prison; but also made Joseph a leader in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. God kept His promise to Abraham. No matter what happened, good or bad, God intervened so that somehow it all turned out just the way it needed to. Those of us who believe in Jesus have entered into the same promise, and we have the same God with us and delivering us from all our afflictions also. That is why Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God and to them that are the called according to His purpose.”

Stephen continued his sermon and said in Acts 7:11-20, “Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance. But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph’s kindred was made known unto Pharaoh. Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls. So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he and our fathers, And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the Sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem. But when the time of the promise drew near, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, Till another king arose which knew not Joseph. The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live. In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished in his father’s house three months.”

Of course, the One who was guiding all of these events was God; and God was doing what He was doing based upon the promise that He had made to Abraham. It was all based upon that promise. We can also depend upon God doing in our lives exactly what He knows needs to be done because of promises that He has made to us through Christ. For example, don’t believe any condemnations that come against you, whether they come from others or from your own mind. The Bible says in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”

Even after all the children of Israel had moved to Egypt, they still made sure that the patriarchs were buried in the holy land in the place that Abraham had purchased there. Why do you suppose they did that? Why did they go to all the trouble to take those dead bodies back there for burial? Undoubtedly they did it in order to show the faith that they also had in the promise that God had made to Abraham to give Abraham and his descendants that land. In other words they made sure that they were not too attached to Egypt. They were attached to the promised land where they knew that God would one day take them. In what ways do you make sure that you do not get too attached to this world? First John 2:15 says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in Him.”

Joseph has taken us from the time of Abraham up to the time of Moses. Of course, we know that Moses was a very important person in the plan of God to fulfill the promise given to Abraham. In order for the descendents of Abraham to come to the promised land, they had to leave Egypt; and they needed a leader to get them out of the world and into the promised land. The power of evil tried to destroy that leader when he was just a baby: somewhat similar to what happened when Christ was a baby. But God protects His chosen ones. God has a purpose for each person born into the world, and no one can keep that purpose from being fulfilled. Not only was Moses kept alive, but he was put into a situation where he would get the training that he would need to become the great leader of the children of Israel. Moses would be thoroughly and properly prepared to lead the children of Israel into the promised land. Get prepared if you have the opportunity to do so. God always uses a prepared person for a prepared place.

The Bible says in Acts 7:21-30, “And when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them; but they understood not. And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, you are brethren; why do you wrong one to another? But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday? Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons. And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.”

One thing to notice about this passage are the forty-year periods in the life of Moses. For the first forty years of his life he was raised as an Egyptian, trained in the household of Pharaoh, and educated in the greatest learning of the day that was possible. But there are some things that you cannot learn in books. In the next forty years Moses was in the desert of Midian living as a shepherd in the wilderness away from the great civilization of the day. So we see that it took eighty years of preparation to get Moses ready for the greatest task of his life: leading the children of God to the promised land. Of course, along the way, a few minor things took place such as confronting Pharaoh with the plagues, crossing the Red Sea, climbing to the top of Mount Sinai and getting the ten commandments from the hand of God, and then writing the first five books of the Bible. Tremendous things were done through the life of Moses, but they were not even started until he was eighty years old. Don’t ever think that you are too old to do something for God. Make sure that you are learning now what you can do for God in the future. Don’t be in such a hurry. If you have ten years left, it might be good to spend eight or nine of those years getting prepared. Even Jesus spent thirty years working as a carpenter, and then had just three years of a public ministry.

It takes a lot of living to learn to live for God: it takes a lot of walking where the saints of old have trod. Be sure to walk with Jesus from day to day, my friend; and then some day you will learn enough to serve Him as Moses did.

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